Anthony Daniels, the only person to appear in all seven Star Wars films where he portrayed protocol droid C3PO, is set to star at this year’s annual Storytelling Architecture Technology Experience (SATE) Conference kicks off in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania next week.

First making its debut in 2007, the annual SATE conference, hosted by the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA), has gone from strength-to-strength and this year comes to the Carnegie Mellon University, offering a two-day international gathering of themed entertainment and experience design creators, producers, owners and operators.

‘A Conversation with Anthony Daniels’ moderated by Scott Trowbridge, creative executive at Walt Disney Imagineering, will be the highlight of this year’s event.

Trowbridge, who is responsible for strategic concept development and integration of the Star Wars franchise at Disney’s parks and resorts, will interview Daniels onstage in an ‘Inside the Actors Studio-style’ talk, with the two sharing stories exploring the changing role of technology and the effect it has had on museum installations and rides. During the session, they will also talk about the opportunity ‘Star Wars in Concert’ provided to widen the brand’s fanbase and how technology and multimedia expanded that experience.



Loren Barrows, director of Business Development at Alcorn McBride, and Shirley Saldamarco, president of Interactive Media Productions and faculty member of Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center, are acting as co-chairs for the event, while Smithink president Linda Smith, Forrec’s Anthony Van Dam, Electrosonic’s Paul Kent and Walt Disney Imagineering’s Cory Rouse will act as segment chairs.

This year’s SATE conference takes place 17-18 September. For more click here.